To Don’t List…Get One

Early Morning Conversations

I walked into my friend’s office to pick her up for our morning ritual: a quick cup of coffee before our busy days took off.  With pen in hand, she seemed quite pleased with what she had just written.  “I’ll be ready in a minute.  I’m just finishing my To-Don’t List.”  I looked at her curiously.

She had decided that the way to address being overwhelmed during a particularly busy month was to consciously remove 1-3 things from her To Do List every day, and to actually make a written To-Don’t List.  She was literally creating more space in her day to tackle the really important things and discovering she had much more control than she thought.

On future coffee runs, we’d often laugh and ask each other, “Did you remove some stuff today?”  With all the forces around us saying, Fit this in, it was refreshing to create some positive forces of our own that reminded us to Leave this out.

Two Magic Words

If you’re like me, sometimes you may resist taking items off your list.  If this is the case, try these two magic words: For Now.  Perhaps they’ll be a priority another day.

Your Daily Nonessentials

Having a written To-Don’t List is a good practice, at least until creating space becomes more of a habit.

“Besides the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials.”
— Lin Yutang